Warden
by Hattiakourri
Summary: Freeza's contemplating mortality-- and the identity of the person who will take his place.


** Freshly edited and cleaned as of 2-26-2010! **

This story has been brewing in my head for a little while now, and I have to write it now. Call it my anxiety therapy. Anyway, here you go-- another little story to pass the time.

**Disclaimer: I don't own, DBZ, obviously. If I did, this wouldn't be **_**fanfiction**_**…**

Let's Go!

~*~ Hattiakourri ~*~

Warden

Mortality is never a subject that is easily dealt with. Unless, of course, you don't have to deal with it at all-- in which case, I'm sure there is a fair share of disturbances for _that,_ as well. The subject of Immortality is something that mortals do not have the time to dwell on, not even me.

I am Emperor Freeza, favored Son of the Cosmos, Heir to the Mantle of Galaxies. My strength and wisdom is without equal.

I am a god.

And yet… I am mortal.

This living blood that courses through my veins is a corruption to me. I am destined to be a god—a great and powerful god without equal or precedent—but as long as my life exists to be claimed or to wither, how can this be so?

Of course, no mortal can steal the breath from _my_ lips. The cosmos is littered with the bones of the people that have tried, and tasted the bitter flavour of their own blood. Mortality, though, will never be warning enough to stop their attempts, and they will follow their own folly with their fleeting lives.

_Time_, however, is the stalker that cannot be killed.

It is intangible, uncontrollable, and unstoppable… Life, ephemeral in its nature and its essence, buoys in its drifts until one passes away into the lands beyond the living.

_Well, how nice for the proverbial "One."_

I am Emperor Freeza, favored Son of the Cosmos, Heir to the Mantle of Galaxies. My strength and wisdom is without equal.

And I know that I will die.

Far-off that dark day may be, it is a path I cannot deviate from, a powerful pull of natural order that grabs all things and drags them toward inevitability, toward the fates that await us all. But when that day comes, I will bequeath my mighty empire and my terrifying blessing upon my successor, and I will die with serenity and grace, knowing the labours of my life's work were placed in very worthy hands.

I have no spawn of my own--but I don't _need _an heir.

I've already got one.

Long ago, I procured quite a rare treasure, a specimen so exceedingly precious and uncommon that only one of its kind exists in the entirety of the universe.

The fact that I was instrumental in making him so is beside the point.

I hadn't understood the gravity of this creature until I saw his immense potential in battle. I had heard many of the tales of bloodshed and battle-fed fury of this particular breed of creature, as well as their tales of valor and duty, unprecedented amongst any other race in the known universe.

I was curious, morbidly so, quite eager to get a hold of such a marvelous creature, so I traveled to their homeworld, intent on seeing such a miraculous being for myself. Intent on procuring such a wonderful creature for my very own.

I was crestfallen.

The specimens I had first encountered were impressively brutish, but alarmingly slow-witted, and blind to airs of glory and honor, which rendered them nearly useless. The planet in itself was little more than a mossy pebble hanging out in the celestial cloud of space. A veritable disappointment, indeed.

I was prepared to smite them into oblivion—

…and then I came across an elite. A Saiyan representing the epitome of all the things that are supposed to be redeeming about their race. However, I decided to do one better—

I found their royalty. But most important of all, I found their _Prince_.

Their infant prince, newly born, gifted with a corona of power that outshined even his grizzled father, the venerated King.

I knew that_ he_ was the one I wanted to add to my menagerie.

I came back, years later, when the child was older, bolder, stronger. I watched him slay Saibamen with an inspiring cunning and cruelty that put his kinsmen to shame. He wielded his power quite well, for a youngling. But that is not what made me shudder, what sent a shock bolting through my blood…

It was his ferocity-an intense, unmerciful, feral flame roiling in the young child's eyes, promising death and ultimate control.

I knew then that he was not fit to be just another creature for my menagerie, to sit idle and be admired from afar. He was a creature of blood and battle, and would be the very idol of the perfect soldier.

I was optimistic, but I was no fool. I knew one of two things would happen—either he would grow unflaggingly loyal to me, carrying my wishes with him wherever he went, doing my will freely… or he would turn from me, fighting me at every turn, looking for any scant chance of escape.

I still coveted you, despite the fact that I knew you would be eventually be a rebel.

I was right. And so, here we are. You've fought me as much as you dared, but still you remain here—perhaps you have figured out that there is no escape from this, from the monsters we've all bred inside of us, to survive. And yours will be with you forever, haunting you even in spirit. Yours may even be worse than mine.

So, my decision is thus—Vegeta, Crown Prince of the Saiyans, _you_ shall be my successor.

And I will gift my empire to you, not because you are the perfect man for the job—which you are. I should know, I trained you myself.

I give this to you because you _don't_ want it.

…

But you're the only one I can trust to take care of it.

~*~ fin. ~*~

((O_O;)) (omg, it's _FREEZA_!)

WOW… random.


End file.
